“sorry i kept you waiting!” said a slim man in a worn baseball cap, jeans, and a t-shirt, as i approached the gate. i was here to meet moses thompson, the director of the community school garden program (csgp) in tucson. his laid-back appearance and friendly demeanor was like a breath of fresh air. 

gardening + community + education = impact

the community school garden program, led by moses for the past two years, is run by the university of arizona’s school of geography. under his leadership and the guidance of the founding director sallie marston, it has become an internationally recognized program. its mission is to enable tucson teachers and the community to develop and sustain gardens at school and at home. focusing on the culture and politics of food, the program connects students to their communities and the world around them. it has trained more than 700 tucson unified school district k-12 educators and has produced over 8,500 hours of service. they estimate to have impacted over 600,000 students. 

moses is the heart of the program. his authenticity, humbleness, and kindness have cultivated a phenomenal csgp team, many of whom grew up in the communities they now serve. moses began his career as an elementary school counselor who integrated his love of nature into his counseling. he typically conducted sessions in an outdoor space at his school where the therapeutic qualities of nature made his students feel safe and at ease, allowing them to feel vulnerable and connect with him. 

what made moses — who had no previous gardening experience — take the leap from being an award-winning school counselor to running an equally awarded garden program?

“i knew close to zero about gardening before i started working with the csgp,” he said. the project’s founder sallie mentored him, and that expanded his idea of who he could be. her advice to him was, “what you want now might not be what you want in five years,” which opened his mind to the idea of leadership.

i asked him how he handles the mantle of leadership and he said, “it feels heavy at times and i doubt myself, but the garden has taught me that skill sets aren’t static and with support and persistence i can navigate challenges. and at the end of the day, my love for the work and my love for the people i work with tamps down the fears and anxiety.”

going for the mari-gold

walking around the garden beds, it was hard to miss the big bushes of marigolds that demanded attention. “we plant a lot of marigolds,” moses said, because the flowers prevent root pests, attract important pollinators, and deter caterpillars. these multitaskers are also beautiful.

reflecting on my time in the garden, i realized that the program is just like the marigolds. the program produces crops, addresses social injustice, and encourages connection with heritage. the garden program is a source of food security, community knowledge, and a safe place for students and teachers. it also has the magical beauty that green spaces provide. it is a multitasker — just like the marigolds. moses and the garden open doors to the most vulnerable among us and teach them to care for the earth and themselves.

“how did you build all this? what is moses thompson’s mission?” i asked.

“what gnarly questions,” he said. 

he leaned on his shovel and took a minute to think and then said, “i think when you get in a garden, something profound can happen. growing food and eating consciously can make you feel different physically, and make you feel different about yourself. there is an unmatched capacity for change in a garden and i want to harness that by making gardening accessible to as many people as possible.”

i couldn’t help but smile.

“that’s incredible. did you prepare all that in advance?”

“oh god no,” he said, with a humble and embarrassed chuckle.

a solution for a hungry nation

the community school garden program is not something that can only bloom in tucson. moses emphasized that this program is a framework, one whose frame can be copied, rebuilt, and placed in other food-insecure areas looking to reconnect with their cultural heritage. moses said the csgp’s methodology is “throwing gas on a grassroots fire.” if the program expanded, it would be seeded with the unique heritage of that new place. a foundational part of the program is that each garden is rooted in the community so that when it develops its fruits, they are useful and familiar to those local to that place.

what is abundantly clear about moses is that he cares deeply about our youngest generation. we talked about the climate crisis, how to fight it, and how to stay joyful doing it.

“having no agency and feeling hopeless can make you paralyzed,” he said. “here in the garden, you learn how to grow your own food, and sustain your own life, in harsh and demanding conditions. that gives you agency. it gives you self-confidence and self-worth. from a young age, you can see biodiversity and its benefits here, you can see ecosystem services.” 

moses’ philosophy seems to be working. many of his students have gardens at home, too. he believes that the physiological and community benefits of gardens will build resilience and fight climate change.

slideshow by halley hughes

moses also gave me one of the kindest gifts i’ve ever received: the csgp’s 2022 almanac. however, this is no normal farmer’s almanac. it is an anthology soaked in the heritage of the sonoran desert and community love. every page, every drawing, and every inclusion is so intentional in delivering cultural and ecological knowledge. moses and his team knew they didn’t want the almanac to be a top-down intellectual product from the university of arizona. he wanted kids to use the almanac, and to see their moms and other relatives in the pages. 

that beautiful almanac now sits on my coffee table so that my home’s visitors can soak up the beauty of sonoran heritage. what the csgp has accomplished can be accomplished anywhere. by connecting with their communities and food, the generation that will experience climate change more prevalently than any other will be the navigators who lead us toward a hopeful future. moses taught me that gardens are tools that can sow a generation of empowered children. 

that powerful idea is none other than the green bronx machine, but rest assured it is not your typical machine. the green bronx machine is powered by none other than students with a passion for gardening healthy greens, as well as educators who spark that passion in their students.

planted in the bronx

the green bronx machine’s most notable educator is also its founder: stephen ritz. ritz is a bronx native and can easily be identified by his exuberant energy both in and out of the classroom. teaching at schools with some of the worst dropout rates in the country, ritz has always been deeply committed to his students and has worked tirelessly to keep them engaged in school. 

nearly a decade ago, ritz had a lightbulb moment that would change the trajectory of his career and students’ lives forever. when his middle schoolers accidentally stumbled upon a box of flower bulbs in his classroom, they were fascinated by their discovery and were eager to learn how to plant.

pleasantly surprised by his students’ reaction, stephen realized that he could better engage his students by making gardening the center of the classroom experience. 

“i could teach children to read and write and do math if i put this magical garden in the middle of the classroom and built school around it,” ritz said.

in 2013, ritz became the first teacher in the u.s. to implement tower gardens in the classroom. 

sprouting local solutions

since the introduction of tower gardens, the green bronx machine has flourished into an educational and community-based organization that teaches students how to garden and consume healthier foods. under its model, students still learn core subjects like science and math, but gardening is put at the center of teaching so that students have a more engaging and hands-on learning experience. while unconventional, the green bronx machine education model has proven to be effective in training and empowering students.

“we’ve taken a formerly failing, slated-to-be-closed school that now outperforms city and statewide benchmarks in all areas,” ritz said.

notably, the green bronx machine has not only closed education gaps in the bronx but has also expanded to address local food insecurity as well. today, the organization runs classroom and community gardens all throughout the bronx, serving as a production hub for healthy greens around the bronx community. cory gamble, a former student of ritz’s and the green bronx machine’s farm technician, has witnessed how the green bronx machine fills an incredibly important food access gap in his community.

“that’s the main thing in the bronx: lack of food,” gamble said. “the bronx doesn’t really have food like that. it’s mostly junk food around here than anything else.”

ritz’s vision for the green bronx machine is rooted in community empowerment and self-sufficiency. instead of waiting for outsiders to fix the bronx’s food deserts, ritz is eager to make change from within, empowering the bronx’s youth to be farmers who change the trajectory of local food insecurity.

“we at green bronx machine are determined to be the light inside of our tunnel, instead of seeking light at the end of the tunnel,” ritz said.

rooted in resilience

when the covid-19 pandemic took the world by surprise, the green bronx machine was already prepared to address the exacerbated food crisis in the bronx.

“once the covid-19 crisis started, it was amazing that nothing fell off, and green bronx machine didn’t have to readjust,” said michaela, ritz’s daughter who had been helping the organization deliver meals to families during the pandemic.

according to michaela, the green bronx machine worked hard to “fill in the cracks that became even more glaringly apparent in society.” with schools shutting down and healthy meals becoming more difficult to access, the green bronx machine went above and beyond to ensure that their students were still learning and families were still eating. ritz and his team hosted frequent cooking classes, even delivering ingredients to students to make sure they could participate. they also transformed their national health and wellness center into a food pick-up station, in addition to hand-delivering more than 100,000 pounds of food to locals in their community.

“without green bronx machine, i don’t know if half of these kids would be eating due to covid,”  gamble said.

when schools started opening back up again in the bronx, the green bronx machine also resumed their classroom gardening projects in a socially distant manner. in this way, the green bronx machine improved students’ lives during the pandemic through three main avenues: an academic need for learning, a material need for nutritious food, and a social need for human connection.

harvesting a movement

the systemic issues of food insecurity and school dropout rates are not unique to the bronx, and so the green bronx machine strives to replicate these positive impacts in other communities that struggle with their same issues. with expansive success in the bronx education system, the green bronx machine has developed a curriculum model now implemented in over 500 classrooms around the u.s. and world. 

what makes the green bronx machine model so powerful, though, is that it isn’t just an education success story. it’s a societal success story. the green bronx machine’s journey to make the bronx a greener and healthier community shows that societal transformation is most effective and sustainable when it starts from within. instead of employing outside food delivery to feed the bronx, the green bronx machine placed the seeds in the hands of those with the most power to change the bronx for the better: the local youth. 

ultimately, food is the key ingredient that powers the green bronx machine model, bringing together students, educators, and community members alike because nutritious food is a universal necessity of life. food is what we all have in common, and so what the green bronx machine brings to the bronx can be brought to any community in need of healthy food.

according to ritz, “food is the language in which society reveals itself.” and in the bronx, the success of the green bronx machine reveals that youth and education are two of the most powerful channels to bring healthy food access to some of the country’s poorest communities.

a seed of an idea planted in the bronx, the green bronx machine model now has the potential to be harvested around the world. 

despite increased awareness and concern surrounding climate change, a recent study from the pew research center shows that the issue remains highly divisive and political. ninety-four percent of democrats and left-leaning independents consider climate change a major threat to the nation while only 19% of conservative republicans believe the same.

though naperville is a rather conservative city, most of the teachers at neuqua valley ended up using the donated books as doorstops, according to rhonda stibbe, a biology and horticulture teacher there.

while this incident proves that there are climate change deniers in the area, stibbe has not seen that in the classroom. she acknowledged that there might be things that students have heard at home or seen on social media but said that her students are actually very excited to learn about climate change.

“when you put the information in their hands, i think they can reason it out,” stibbe said. “this generation is very, very visual. there’s a lot of data out there, there’s a lot of maps, there’s a lot of things that you can see.”

students’ receptiveness to learning about climate change in areas such as naperville may simply be explained by a generational difference but could also be attributed to a change in political climate.

anna kraftson, a biology teacher and learning support coach at naperville north high school, said that the political alignment has shifted dramatically since she first moved to the area around 15 years ago. though she initially thought it was conservative and religious, she now finds it to be rather moderate. 

“i first started teaching a couple decades ago,” kraftson said. “kids were like, ‘i don’t believe in evolution.’”

in a study from the pew research center in 2007, 51% of americans said that humans have evolved over time. that number has since increased significantly and is up to 81% as of their study earlier this year.

kraftson has seen drastic changes in students’ receptiveness to evolution, and now finds little problem teaching the subject. however, she said that she faces similar frustration toward the idea of “believing” in climate change.

“it’s just a statement,” kraftson said. “there’s data. it’s not like ‘i believe in this’ or ‘i don’t believe in this.’ it’s more like, ‘this is the evidence.’”

paul vandersteen, an environmental science teacher at neuqua valley high school, has experienced similar issues when teaching evolution and has tried to approach climate change in the same way. he said his responsibility as a science teacher is to present his students with evidence and allow them to make their own conclusions. 

“i think it’s important that teachers address what science is before they venture into climate change,” vandersteen said. “you take down the defenses when you present to them the nature of science. and once you present the nature of science, there really is no defense.”

while teachers in more conservative areas must find specific tools and approaches for teaching climate change, they don’t always have too much time to employ them. 

according to biology and environmental science teachers at naperville north, neuqua valley, and wheaton north high schools, climate change is built into the curriculum. however, according to five teachers we interviewed from those schools, the time spent on climate change varied between just two and three weeks, almost a quarter of the time evanston township high school teachers spend on the subject on average.  

vandersteen said that he teaches climate change for five to six class periods, around two weeks, in his ap environmental science class. he said he spends enough time on the subject. 

“i have adequate time to do it justice,” vandersteen said. “any more time and i think they might get bored with it.”

while vandersteen fears his students will get bored after a few days, some biology teachers at evanston township high school, located in the neighboring liberal district of cook county, say they spend weeks to months of the year teaching climate change in their introductory biology courses. 

the county board is currently controlled by the democratic party with a 15 to two margin.

adriane slaton, a biology teacher at evanston township, spends roughly 12 weeks on climate change with her freshman and sophomore students. for their final project, her students take statements that deny climate change and refute them with scientific evidence. many of her students become rather passionate about climate change after this unit and some have even become vegetarians as a result, slaton said. 

“i thought this was a really important subject to talk about and make sure that students could argue against climate change denial using evidence and reasoning,” slaton said. “it’s been kind of cool to see what their personal changes have been and the personal decisions that they start to shift when they are realizing that they themselves can do something.”

while slaton and many other teachers at evanston township do choose to put so much time and care into teaching climate change, there really isn’t a curriculum for it, slaton said. instead, the time spent on climate change is up to each individual teacher. according to slaton, there are still a few biology teachers at evanston township who don’t teach climate change at all.

“biology is growing exponentially,” slaton said. “so there’s always something important, another important topic to still address. if i had my way, biology would be three years or four years long, and then maybe we would start hitting (climate change).”

evanston township science department chair terri sowa-imbo said their commitment to teaching climate change is not about political alignment, but a growing urgency. 

“it’s something that everyone needs to know, they need to be able to decipher real news and data from fake news and data. and it’s — there’s a lot of that out there,” sowa-imbo said. 

from 2012-2014, i taught 7th grade english language arts at a charter school in new orleans. as an educator, i started to see the reality that climate change actively threatened the success and welfare of my children. it was a startling wake-up call, one that led me to transition out of the classroom to work on this very issue.

currently, i am an apprentice at the international research institute for climate and society, and a graduate student in the climate and society program at columbia university. my driving hope in this work is the promise of bridging climate and educational justice. i recognize that there is no hope in the fight against climate change without an equal fight for educational equity. through both my research in my master’s program and experience in the classroom, i have come to believe that our teachers must prepare students to adapt to inevitable climate changes, and, more importantly, to step forward as leaders in this world if there is any prospect for a better future.

with this in mind, here are five concrete ways teachers can bring climate activism into their classrooms in order to show students the agency they have in securing their futures and to prepare them to be change makers in our society.

1. take small steps to create a more sustainable classroom.

there are many low-hanging fruits teachers and students can go after to easily reduce their classrooms’ carbon footprints. here are some examples:

• avoid printing things you can keep on a screen to reduce paper waste
• allow students to wear jackets in the classroom instead of using unnecessary amounts of heating
• light up the classroom using natural light or ask administration to switch to led light bulbs

these are all simple ways to create a lower-carbon classroom environment.

2. get kids involved in everyday sustainability.

explicitly teaching students about eco-friendly actions will help them contribute more effectively to the small steps in sustainability that the class is taking together. many people do not know the difference between items that can be recycled and items that must be trashed. this is just one example of a simple barrier that could confront students’ ability to participate in climate solutions. teachers can combat this by having students create signs that show the differences between various types of recyclables, or develop a fun slogan that helps them to remember.

3. teach the “why” of sustainable practices.

teachers should back up all of their classes’ hard work by informing students about the facts associated with worldwide climate change. you can do this by getting help from experts in the climate science field. for example, nasa’s climate literacy pamphlet breaks down the issue of climate change into understandable terms. other resources can supplement this information source and make it more fun. the bell museum of natural history at the university of minnesota has a cool and informative animation that helps students really understand the carbon cycle and how humans have altered it.

4. incorporate environmental themes into classroom units.

there are many authors who deal explicitly with topics that help us realize why it is important to maintain the integrity and beauty of natural systems. some powerful examples of works centered on these themes include wendell berry’s poem, “the peace of wild things” and michael pollan’s the omnivore’s dilemma: young readers edition. additionally, teachers can introduce students to environmental leaders such as van jones and lisa p. jackson through literature.

5. celebrate students’ use of sustainable practices at school and at home.

when i taught michael pollan’s novel, i reinforced this new knowledge with a trip to the local farmer’s market. there my students learned about urban farming, and were able to get a better grasp of what options they had in sourcing the food they eat at home. this field trip served as an impetus for students to be more critical about what they consumed and carry this knowledge into their futures. this is just one of the many ways to celebrate their carbon-saving lifestyles in and out of the classroom.

brittany watts is a master’s student in climate and society at columbia university.

_{photo by royhalzenski}